Linux

Monthly Archives: July 2013

So i know there is a patch for this is the arch repositories, but nothing that i could find for Ubuntu. So i will show you what to add to your “steam” startscript in “/usr/bin”. This will allow you to iconify steam when you press the x button on the window to close it, instead of it just minimizing itself to your panel.

so we need to edit “steam” in “/usr/bin”

1.) sudo gedit /usr/bin/steam

2.) when you have it open, the first few lines should look like this.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# This is the Steam script that typically resides in /usr/bin
# It will create the Steam bootstrap if necessary and then launch steam.

# Get the full name of this script
export STEAMSCRIPT=”$(cd “${0%/*}” && echo “$PWD”)/${0##*/}”

3.) in between the top comments and where it goes to “# Get the full name of this script”, i created another line and put it in there.

So now when you start steam from your desktop icon, or menu, or terminal command, steam will open up, and when you press the [x] in the corner of the window, you will notice that it wont be on your panel, but you will still have the steam icon near your clock and other applets.

If you want things to go back to the way they were, simply just delete that line that i added, and save it. You should be back to normal the next time you start steam.

Anyone else notice that after getting updates for xorg files from the “Edgers PPA”, causes Steams UI to have terrible glitches? It’s not on just one desktop environment, but so far from what i have tested, it is happening on LXDE, and Cinnamon. I try to search these things, but dont ever see anyone posting that they have this problem. I will get to the bottom of this!

Ok so ive started to notice, that sometimes..(Not always)..after a kernel update, and a restart of my system, that “Bumblebeed” doesn’t start up. I go to run a command with “primusrun” or “optirun”, and ive been getting this error.

2013/07/16 14:52:00 socat[5962] E connect(3, AF=1 “/var/run/bumblebee.socket”, 27): No such file or directoryprimus: fatal: failed to connect to Bumblebee daemon: No such file or directory

So i noticed that you cant fix that issue by doing “sudo service bumblebeed start”..You just end up getting this error.

[ 125.430955] [ERROR]The Bumblebee daemon has not been started yet or the socket path /var/run/bumblebee.socket was incorrect.[ 125.431012] [ERROR]Could not connect to bumblebee daemon – is it running?

So what it is, is that when the newest kernel gets applied..the new linux-header files dont get installed, and that’s what bumblebee is looking for.

So i after a kernel update, i just do “uname -a”… to see what kernel i am currently running, and then install the linux-header file to match with it. Then i restart the computer and bumblebee seems to start working again.

I dont know if i noticed this happening when i was using Linux Mint 15 on my laptop..but i do know that it does do it with Peppermint OS.

Anyway!..i hope i cleared up anyones confusion if you are experiencing the same issues.

So i am in the Linux beta for Strike Suit Zero on Steam. It has been rough, since alot of issues so far are bad resolution errors, and graphical glitches. I have been able to run the game on my Optimus laptop with slight graphical glitches, but well enough to actually play the game. If you are in the beta, and want to try the game out decently on a laptop with Optimus in Linux..i have made a bash script that will load the game via “primusrun”. It loads the game without steam having to be opened, but that just means you cant save your progress. So i suggest running the script with steam opened. Also note that you will get odd graphical glitches during cutscenes, and loading intros..the game will still work out pretty well. You will notice some white boxes during missions that are usually destination markers, and such. Also note, that the game loads up in fullscreen. On my laptop it loaded up into a decent resolution..so i dont even bother messing with the resolution. Changing it will just cause problems.

Well im gonna rant about a few pro’s and con’s about what i feel towards the Unity Engine. I am glad they made the effort to bring it to Linux, and open up so many more devs to the option to supply us with a ton more games. It has encouraged alot of other developers who dont use Unity to create more native ports of games for Linux as well.

As for the performance of the engine…well i feel it is a bit sluggish, and doesn’t even compare to the source engine(which is 10x faster and 10x better looking). Ive noticed that it does not work well with fullscreen support most of the time. How it uses mono kind of bothers me. That project felt like it was going out the window soon.

As for my thoughts about the Developers who use the Unity 4.0. I have noticed that alot of developers who say that they are going to release their game on “Linux, Windows, and Mac”, decide to build their game around this Middleware that only seems to work on Windows and Mac. This causing them to have to work even more, and take longer to release the Linux version. Why they do this, just doesn’t make sense. I know they are in a rush to get their game out and working for Windows platform first. They always are..but wouldn’t it just make things easier to work on all three versions of the game so that they all work well at launch?

I dont know..but the way the Unity team described how easy it is to export to Linux…just sounds like a lie.

As for the steam greenlight community. It makes me wonder if alot of those devs are lying about making a native client for all three OS’s just to get their game onto steam. You try and ask a dev about a Linux version, and they just run around in circles and never give you a direct answer. They always say they are using the Unity engine, but they never release the Linux version of any of their demos. Only a few have, and i thank those devs for that.

So that pretty much clears up how i feel about it. I mean it has brought some good games to Linux, and i do enjoy them. I just wish most of the devs (not all), were smarter when it came to releasing their games with it.

So i was showing my friend my stats on my Intel Core i5, and i was using “cat /proc/cpuinfo“. He looked at it and was like “Oh i need to send you a script”. He said that Ubuntu doesn’t take full advantage of Intel Processors. Mainly the i3, i5, and i7. So he gave me this script, and i ran it. So i noticed a boost in the “cpu Mhz” section..by alot.

So now i need to explain how to get the script to work. I took the script and placed it in my “/usr/bin” folder, and did “sudochmod +x scale.sh“. I then noticed that it does give you a few options when you run it. “USAGE: /usr/bin/scale.sh [conservative|ondemand|userspace|powersave|performance]”. So run it like it so “sudoscale.sh performance“.

This could possible help boost the performance of intel graphics as well. I dont ever use the intel graphics card for games, but i should check it out.

I will soon explain about getting it to startup on startup. I haven’t messed with it yet. If you beat me to it, go ahead and share it.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and im sorry if has been a while since i have shared something with you. I have been busy. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to speak out to me! I will be here to help out.